Double Self-Portrait
James Lindsay
AUGUST 2020
112 pages | ISBN 978-1-989496-07-7
Double Self-Portrait explores doubling and reproduction in art, memory, culture, nostalgia and fatherhood. Divided by four longer, more autobiographical poems, Double Self-Portrait is a deeply layered collection, one that at times speaks directly to the reader and at other times is meta-textual. Bees, cicadas, music and photography swirl through these poems, bounded as they are by the resistance to and embracing of responsibility. This is a collection where the poems work individually and together, subtly building toward a single theme that slowly coalesces during the reading to create a collection that resonates in your mind long after the book is closed.
Reviews | Interviews | Articles | Excerpt | About the Author | Other Titles
Advance Praise
“Not an example of a high brought low, or the low vaulted, Double Self-Portrait instead feels like a densely swaying poem-tower that Mr. Lindsay has built spiral staircases inside of to spin us back down to stable ground. Double Self-Portrait is an exciting collection of poems, strong and certain with a deeply felt beat of humanity that ‘succeeds in signifying an idea of the internal / with all its mysterious wet bits.’ Or, maybe I could just say it’s ‘more mauve than cherry.’” – Ben Estes, author of Illustrated Games of Patience
“Here, the poet declares it is time to reconsider what is heroic, what is left after wading through the detritus of the modern world and the self is left bare. In Double Self-Portrait unsettled lives are depicted with the fierce self-questioning of a philosopher in the well-negotiated timbre of a comedian tuned to the wreckages of this hour in the world. Lindsay’s searching lines offer a counter-reading of the self that does not mean to make you see everything. Here is a repose for the things that should last in the self but do not.” – Canisia Lubrin, author of The Dyzgraphxst and Voodoo Hypothesis
Reviews
Review of Double Self-Portrait by James Lindsay (Margaryta Golovchenko, Town Crier, 17/08/2020)
"Double Self-Portrait resembles a cabinet of curiosities, yet Lindsay’s poems are propelled by something far greater than the mere curiosity in the surrounding world."
A Meta-Textual Hive: Double Self-Portrait By James Lindsay (Chris Banks, Miramichi Reader, 24/06/2020)
"Double Self-Portrait by James Lindsay resembles a meta-textual hive, full of a buzzing energy created by the many connections the poems weave among themselves."
Interviews
Episode 8: James Lindsay (Glass Bookshop, 04/02/2021)
Hear from James Lindsay about writing, reading and psychoanalysis.
E202 with JAMES LINDSAY (Jamie Tennant, Get Lit, 1/10/2020)
Jamie and James discuss his new poetry Double Self-Portrait.
Episode 65: James Lindsay (Small Machine Talks, 28/09/2020)
An interview with James Lindsay.
On compositional improvisation and Music at the Heart of Thinking: An interview with Fred Wah (James Lindsay, All Lit Up, 14/08/2020)
James Lindsay talks to Fred Wah about compositional improvisation, the history of Music at the Heart of Thinking, repetition as insistence and more.
Articles
20 Poetry Collections You May Have Missed in 2020 (Jaclyn Desforges, Hamilton Review of Books, 16/04/2021)
James' poetry collection is included in the wonderful roundup!
James Lindsay, Dennis Cooley, Gerald Hill, Paul Pearson + Carrie Hunter : virtual reading series #21 (periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics, 09/11/2020)
James shares a reading of his poem "Tinnitus."
Most Anticipated: Spring 2020 Poetry Preview (49th Shelf, 06/02/2020)
James' collection makes the list of the 49th Shelf's Most Anticipated Spring Poetry.
Excerpt
Read an excerpt from Double Self-Portrait.
Tuesday poem #409 : James Lindsay : from LABOUR DAY (James Lindsay, DUSIE, 02/02/2021)
James Lindsay shares a poem.
About the Author
James Lindsay is the author of Our Inland Sea and the chapbook Ekphrasis! Ekphrasis! He is the co-founder of Pleasence Records and works in book publishing. He lives in Toronto.
Other Titles by this Author
Our Inland Sea (2015)